Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to medical devices and methods. In particular, the present disclosure relates to providing stimuli to a subject to treat various neurological disorders or conditions and/or to provide performance enhancement.
Discussion of the Background
Sensory stimulation has been applied to treat various disorders. For example, binaural beats have applied to induce various mental states to encourage sleep, relaxation, meditation, creativity, and other desirable mental states. Combinations of auditory and visual stimuli have been applied to encourage such mental states as well. The application of such therapy, however, has been less than ideal in many circumstances. Equipment to provide the stimulus can be bulky, expensive, generally inaccessible, and below the critical efficacy threshold for widespread use, typically only helping subsets of the population. Users may find the use of such equipment difficult in many circumstances, such as when trying to sleep in a bedroom or an airplane cabin.
To treat various neurological disorders and conditions, pharmaceuticals and/or supplements are often used instead of sensory stimulation. The use of pharmaceuticals, however, can be less than ideal in many circumstances. Often, pharmaceuticals are expensive, rely on patient-compliance, and may require a prescription from a medical professional. Pharmaceuticals may be effective in only a small, less than ideal portion of the general population. To treat insomnia, for example, pharmaceuticals and supplements such as melatonin and zolpidem (e.g., AMBIEN™) have questionable efficacy. Pharmaceuticals often lead to undesirable side effects. For example, some pharmaceutical for treating insomnia can lead to deprivation in certain ranges of deep sleep and increases in mortality rates.
For at least these reasons, improved methods and systems to treat neurological disorders and other conditions that overcome at least some of the aforementioned challenges are desired.